Carbon Footprint: Features

The Gillard Government’s carbon tax has provoked varied and, in some cases, extreme reactions but the message from the channel is simple - bring it on.

It was 2006, and Tom Noonan had it all. Internet Security Systems (ISS), the company he co-founded and led as CEO, was pulling in $US400 million in annual revenue and on the verge of being acquired by IBM for a whopping $US1.3 billion.

IT buys the technology; facilities buys the energy. That's the way it's always been in corporate America. But that may be changing.

Could saving the Earth – and your company's bottom line – be as simple as using fresh air to cool the datacentre?

Although the ramifications of the dour economic climate have yet to be fully felt, networking market observers are already forecasting significant changes in 2009. Many predict organisations will look to reduce travel expenses and implement cost-effective mechanisms such as unified communications and video conferencing, increasing demand on the network. Meanwhile, virtualisation, which has had a strong hold in the storage and server space, will gain prominence as a network trend.

The potential for wind power in the upper Midwest United States has led some to dub the region the "Saudi Arabia of wind." But tapping that potential isn't easy. In particular, the difficulty of integrating wind power into utility companies' transmission grids is hampering adoption.

The 2008 presidential election gives CIOs and other IT executives a choice of two major-party candidates who are interested in technology-related issues. While the US economy and the war in Iraq have dominated the debate between Republican nominee Senator John McCain and Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama, they have also hit on such IT hot buttons as telecommunications and tech jobs.

IT takes a close look at shipping container-based data centers

Environmental issues exposed by the media and driven by consumers have placed IT departments under pressure to develop "green" data centers. Factors including the reduction of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in large data centers often provide the impetus for becoming green. A recent report issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) highlights the need for data center efficiency and demonstrates the increased pressure that IT departments are under.

Green IT has been brushed off as just another fad, but for many industry players it has generated strong revenue streams and is now considered part and parcel of good practice. TREVOR CLARKE reports.

Chief Technology Officer Arvind Thapar wants to bring new green technology to his company, but his proposed initiative -- installing wind turbines to generate power -- is decidedly outside the usual realm of IT.

In senior management circles the word ‘crisis’ is not one to be bandied about lightly, especially in front of journalists. But when you hear it slipping out in private conversations and on the edges of high-level meetings you know something has to be amiss. For Australian datacentres the word is increasingly being tied to the availability of power, or more aptly the lack of it.

HP saw potential in used water bottles. Hewlett-Packard found a way to turn those old bottles, along with other types of recyclable consumer plastics, into ink-jet printer cartridges.

Jonathan Snyder's five-person team at Dreambuilder Investments isn't your typical IT organization. Or is it?

Some channel players have already adopted green business practices and are now driving them into their customer environments.

Awareness of the impact IT has on the environment is growing rapidly but, as with all matters of public concern, government has a lead role to play in setting an example.

It is imperative that businesses quickly recognize the need for environmentally sound behaviors and good business practices to co-exist, Nortel President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Zafirovski said today at FORTUNE's first-ever Brainstorm: GREEN Conference** in Pasadena, Calif.

Spurred by business needs as well as environmental concerns, green IT projects blossomed in datacenters and on desktops throughout the world in 2007.

Fulfilling the demand for broadband to millions of users across the globe takes more than just ingenuity, it takes energy -- lots of it. Accounting for nearly 1 per cent of total power consumption in the UK alone, BT Group was faced with a dilemma: how to scale and roll out new services to take advantage of new market opportunities without overburdening its energy budget -- and the climate.

Some enterprises have found ways to ensure their technology investments provide both environmental benefit and a quick return on investment.